Alice at the End
by Brumeier
Summary: My take on Alice's thoughts when she returns back home from the hospital at the end of the movie.


**Author's Note:** I don't own any of these characters (but I know which one I would if I could!). This is my first fan fic, I hope you like it.

**Alice At the End**

Alice walked through the door of the apartment, feeling as though she'd been gone for a month. An overnight stay in the hospital had given her a clean bill of health but her mind was still struggling to come to grips with the time. Only an hour, her mother had said. But in that hour she'd spent three insane Wonderland days. How was it possible?

Carol walked past her, high heels clicking on the wood floor, but Alice could only stand there. Everything looked different, diminished somehow. She'd done crazy, unthinkable, _legendary_ things in Wonderland, and now it was back to sharing an apartment with her mother like she was just a regular person. How could that be?

_Hatter…_

Alice wandered back to her room, feeling absolutely nothing as she took in all of her once prized possessions. The porcelain rabbit lamp was absolutely going at the first opportunity; just looking at it gave her the creeps. She looked at the map on the wall, bristling with push pins, and told herself that it was the loss of her father that was making her feel this way.

She knew that was only part of it.

_You still don't trust me?_ Alice's throat drew tight as Hatter's question echoed in her head. He'd given her countless opportunities to trust him, to believe in him, and she kept slapping him down. But as she thinks about it, she realizes that's not entirely true.

She trusted him enough to lead her along the ledge, even though her heart was pounding and her skin was slick with fear. She trusted him enough to ride that stupid Flamingo with him, when she would have rather faced the gun-toting Suits. She trusted him to have her back when there was trouble. And she'd even started to trust that he'd be there when she needed him, because he always seemed to be.

Alice only wished she had been able to tell Hatter all that. She'd blown into his life and blown back out again, and whatever was left for him in Wonderland was probably in ruins thanks to her. She'd been selfish. Stupid and selfish, and there was nothing to do about it now.

Forcing herself to start moving, Alice began plucking pins from the map. She wondered how many more years she would've searched for her father if she hadn't gone to Wonderland. And there was guilt in the thinking of it, because he'd have been alive and well if she hadn't gone. It didn't matter that he was ruining lives – he'd at least still be breathing.

Alice took the map off the wall and laid it on her bed. She got a box – an old hat box, she noted with a choked laugh that was really more of a sob – to put her father's things into. A few photographs, a deck of cards, his wallet, and other odds and ends all went into the box.

"What's this about?" Carol asked, appearing in the doorway.

"I don't have to look for Dad anymore," Alice said. She knew her mother wouldn't understand, just as she'd never understood Alice's need to search in the first place. "It's time to move on."

Only she didn't know how to do it. The loss of her father was a dull ache in her heart, as it had always been, but the loss of Hatter was sharper and so very painful.

_Hatter…_

The front door buzzer sounded as Alice started rolling up the map. Her mother started in surprise.

"I almost forgot!" Carol said. "That construction worker who found you wanted to stop by and see how you were. Very sweet."

Alice barely heard her. She slid the map under her bed. There was only one thing left – her father's copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

_Does this look like a kid's story to you?_

Alice almost smiled. It certainly hadn't been anything like a children's story, but she had gained so much from her time in Wonderland. Not for the first time she remembered that almost-kiss in the forest and wondered what would have happened if Jack hadn't interrupted. Hatter had done so much for her, and had she ever properly thanked him for putting himself at risk time and again? With a heavy heart she had to acknowledge that she hadn't. She'd just kept waiting for him to abandon her, to turn against her, but the irony was that she'd been the one to push him away, the one to leave in the end.

"Alice! Come meet David!"

Alice sighed. She didn't want to meet David, but she knew it would be rude not to thank him. The nurses said he hadn't left her side until they got to the hospital. Feeling sad and achy, Alice walked down the hall to the living room, looking down at her hands and wishing things could've been different.

_Hatter…_

There was a change in the air – Alice felt it as soon as she reached the end of the hall. It was like a scent in the air that didn't belong, or a feel of electricity against her skin. She looked up and felt her mouth fall open. Like the answer to her unspoken prayers, there he stood. He'd changed his clothes and combed his hair, but she'd have known him even in the dark.

"Hatter!" Unable to help herself, she ran across the room as if he might vanish in the next second and threw herself into his arms. All her fears left her and she pulled herself as tightly against him as she could. She breathed in his spicy scent – cinnamon and tea leaves and that masculine otherness that was all Hatter.

"Finally," he whispered, his breath tickling her ear.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," Alice said breathlessly. She wouldn't let him get away again without telling him how she felt. She pushed back a little so she could look into his eyes, and the tenderness she saw there warmed her clear through. Had she really turned away from that? She must be mad.

Hatter kissed her then and Alice knew that this time, with this man, everything was going to be different. Better. She'd been a fool to ever let him go and she wouldn't make that mistake again.

"I missed you," Hatter said, pulling out of the kiss. Alice put her hand on his cheek and drew him back in. She couldn't manage any words, but for right now this kiss told Hatter exactly what she wanted him to know.

_I love you._

**The End**

**I hope you liked it! Please review if you did. If you didn't, that's okay too! (Just don't tell me, LOL!)**


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